Coram Deo ~

Looking at contemporary culture from a Christian worldview

Category Archives: Faith and Work

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. Colossians 3:23-24


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FAITH AND WORK: Connecting Sunday to Monday

Faith and Work News ~ Links to Interesting Articles

  • Does It Matter Where Women Work? Carolyn McCulley writes “Bedroom or boardroom, the Bible makes it clear that God wants us to think strategically about how to create everlasting value through our labors at home and in the marketplace.”
  • How Much Time Should I Spend Developing Relationships at Work? Russ Gehrlein writes “Which is more important: the accomplishment of the mission or taking care of people?”
  • Is Your Work Life Biblically Balanced? Bryan Chapell writes “There is a genuine busyness that flows from dedicated devotion to God’s purposes. But it’s not a devotion that excludes him. Biblical balance keeps us available to God. Hellish busyness makes us unavailable to God.”

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The Importance of Completed Staff Work

During my nearly 38-year career at a Fortune 50 organization, I worked with a number of talented leaders, each of whom emphasized different aspects of leadership. I learned a lot from the men and women I worked with. As an example, see my article “11 Things I Learned to Do From My Leaders”. One of my leaders emphasized the importance of follow-up, another emphasized bringing a possible solution to a problem, while another emphasized critical thinking and completed staff work, the latter of which may not be a concept that everyone is familiar with. The leader who emphasized completed staff work did it so frequently that in one of our function meetings we did a skit about it, and even had a rap group named CSW (Completed Staff Work) do a song about it. It was all done in good fun, and to emphasize the importance of completed staff work. But what is completed staff work, why is it important, and is it always necessary to do it?      Continue reading →


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FAITH AND WORK: Connecting Sunday to Monday

Faith and Work News ~ Links to Interesting Articles

  • How Do I Manage My Staff with Humble Confidence? Courtney Moore responds to the question “When managing others, how should I balance the important attribute of confidence (“I know this is what we should do and how we should get there”) with humility (“I need your insight on what we should do or how we should get there”)?”
  • Be a Gospel Signpost with the Work of Your Hands. Hugh Whelchel writes “How has God designed and called you? Do you see your work as a “signpost” to point people to God’s picture story? How can you give others a glimpse of shalom through your work?”
  • Reflections on the Impacts of Teleworking from a Biblical Worldview. Russ Gehrlein writes “I trust that both Christian employers and employees have been confronted with some new thoughts that can be translated into good habits in this hybrid work environment. If we continue to serve our employees, submit to our bosses, and work wholeheartedly for the Lord, we will bless others.”

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FAITH AND WORK: Connecting Sunday to Monday

Faith and Work News ~ Links to Interesting Articles

  • Is Work a Blessing or a Curse? On this episode of the Ask Pastor John podcast, John Piper responds to the question “Can you tell me whether our work today is a blessing or a curse? Much of our work seems to be cursed, based on Genesis 3. But a lot of our work also seems to be a God-given blessing, according to Ecclesiastes. According to the Bible, is my nine-to-five job a blessing, or is it a curse?”
  • Mere Christians: David Platt. On this episode of the Mere Christians podcast, Jordan Raynor visits with David Platt about six steps to following Jesus fully at work.
  • Called to Lead. My book Called to Lead: Living and Leading for Jesus in the Workplace is available in both a paperback and Kindle edition. Read a free sample (Introduction through Chapter 2).
  • How to Work Well When Your Children Are Sick. Fernie Cosgrove shares a few things she’s learned about managing work when a child is sick.

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  • The Top 10 Faith and Work Quotes of the Week
  • My Review of The Leader’s Journey: Accepting the Call to Personal and Congregational Transformation (Second Edition) by Jim Herrington, Trisha Taylor and R. Robert Creech
  • Quotes from the book You’re Only Human: How Your Limits Reflect God’s Design and Why That’s Good News by Kelly Kapic

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The Power of Connecting with Those You Lead


I have always seen leadership as a privilege, something I was called and blessed to do. When a servant leader has the privilege of leading a group of people, they don’t see their team members as members of a team, as just an analyst who has certain skills that are valuable to a team, for example. No, they see them as unique individuals created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27), with their own hopes, dreams, fears, etc. Continue reading →


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FAITH AND WORK: Connecting Sunday to Monday

Faith and Work News ~ Links to Interesting Articles

  • Why Don’t We Take Our Spiritual Gifts to Work? John Pletcher writes “Subtly or not-so-subtly, church leaders communicate that our special, Christ-given abilities should only be relegated to Sunday services, ministries within churchy walls, and officially church-sanctioned missions in the community or ‘round the globe’.”
  • How Should Christians Respond to the Current Worker Shortage? Russ Gehrlein writes “Undoubtedly, among these millions of Americans, there must be a large number of Christian men and women who have opted out of the workforce. I want to plead with and challenge my brothers and sisters in Christ with this word of encouragement: you have unprecedented opportunities right now to add light to the darkness and salt to a decaying world by bringing God’s presence with you to work.”

Stop Running from Rest. Steve Graves writes “What everyone wants is the very thing that we need more than we realize. Rest. True biblical rest. A real break from the weight and pressure of life and work.”

  • Working Our Jobs as a Way to Love God and Love Our Neighbor with Russ Gehrlein. In this episode of The Kirby Laing Centre podcast listen to a conversation with Russ Gehrlein, author of Immanuel Labor–God’s Presence in Our Profession: A Biblical, Theological, and Practical Approach to the Doctrine of Work. In the book and in this conversation, Russ seeks to bust some of the myths that many of us have received about our work, like: ‘the only truly important work is paid church or missionary work’, and ‘for the rest of us, our jobs are only valuable as an avenue for evangelism and to earn money in order to tithe’.

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  • The Top 10 Faith and Work Quotes of the Week
  • My Review of Leadership Not by the Book: 12 Unconventional Principles to Drive Incredible Results by David Green and Bill High
  • Quotes from the book You’re Only Human: How Your Limits Reflect God’s Design and Why That’s Good News by Kelly Kapic

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FAITH AND WORK: Connecting Sunday to Monday

Faith and Work News ~ Links to Interesting Articles

  • Help! I Work for a Pastor with Low Emotional Intelligence. Miranda Carls responds to the question “I work for a pastor who lacks emotional intelligence. He is arrogant, condescending, and has no self-awareness. Do you have any advice for me?”
  • Mere Christians: David Platt. On this episode of the Mere Christians podcast, Jordan Raynor visits with David Platt about six steps to following Jesus fully at work, how Platt’s view of the Great Commission has greatly expanded over time, and how to respond to gender pronouns in the workplace.
  • Mere Christians: Amy Sherman. On this episode of the Mere Christians podcast, Jordan Raynor visits with Amy Sherman, author of Kingdom Calling and the new book Agents of Flourishing.

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  • The Top 10 Faith and Work Quotes of the Week
  • My Review of The Eight Paradoxes of Great Leadership: Embracing the Conflicting Demands of Today’s Workplace by Tim Elmore
  • Quotes from the book You’re Only Human: How Your Limits Reflect God’s Design and Why That’s Good News by Kelly Kapic

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FAITH AND WORK: Connecting Sunday to Monday

Faith and Work News ~ Links to Interesting Articles

  • How Do You Think About Your Job? Adam Nesmith writes “How you think about your job will directly affect how you work day to day. Sadly, many people have a very wrong perspective about their vocation.”
  • Can I Be a Nurse for a “Gender Reassignment” Surgery? On this episode of the Ask Pastor John podcast, John Piper responds to the question, “I am a nurse in surgery pre-op and recovery for a hospital that performs gender-reassignment surgeries. I play no role in the decisions made to undergo these surgeries. I believe the decision itself is sinful. The question I cannot resolve is this: Is it sinful for me to serve as a nurse involved in the care of these patients in the pre-op and recovery settings?”
  • Are Vocation and Occupation the Same Thing? In this short video, Bryan Chapell tells us “Our occupationis what occupies us, and that’s good and that’s important, but vocation actually comes from a word that means calling.”
  • Should I Prioritize Family or Work? Neither. Michelle Myers responds to the question “Should I prioritize family over work? My quality of work suffers, but my spouse and kids rely on me.”
  • What Would Jesus Do If He Had My Job? Scot Bellavia writes “The WWJD bracelet may be out of style but its purpose remains relevant. “What would Jesus do?” is the only question worth considering for the Christian. What else does it mean to be a Christ follower than to do what he would do?”

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    • The Top 10 Faith and Work Quotes of the Week
    • My Review of Canoeing the Mountains: Christian Leadership in Uncharted Territory (Expanded Edition) by Tod Bolsinger
    • Quotes from the book You’re Only Human: How Your Limits Reflect God’s Design and Why That’s Good News by Kelly Kapic

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My Review of Culture Rules by Mark Miller

Culture Rules: The Leader’s Guide to Creating the Ultimate Competitive Advantage by Mark Miller. Matt Holt. 264 pages. 2023
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In his latest book, Mark Miller longtime leader at Chick-fil-A, has us play the game of building a thriving High Performance Culture, with leaders as the designers.
To do this, his research team talked to or surveyed more than six thousand people from ten countries around the world, representing senior leaders, mid-level leaders, and frontline workers. In “Culture Rules”, he tells their stories and we learn from both their successes and shortcomings.
A key finding in the book is that leaders animate culture. Only leaders can create and sustain a vibrant High Performance Culture. To qualify as a High Performance Culture, three conditions must exist:

  • Alignment
  • Performance
  • Improvement

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FAITH AND WORK: Connecting Sunday to Monday

Faith and Work News ~ Links to Interesting Articles

  • What Do I Do If I Don’t Like My Job? In this short video, Bryan Chapell states “So when we’re in a job that we don’t like so much, apply the George Bailey Test. If you didn’t do it, if nobody did it, what would be the effects upon the world? And suddenly, we begin to recognize that even in the onerous jobs, there is a glory that God intends for his people as they do what needs to be done.”
  • 11 Passages to Read When You Lose Your Job. Crossway shares these helpful passages from scripture to read when you lose your job.
  • The Groan and Glory of Our Work. Scott Sauls writes “Work is glorious because of how it intersects with God’s ongoing creative, restorative mission in the world.”
  • Saints are Needed in Every Sphere. In this discussion, Carl Ellis, Phillip Holmes, and David Platt talk about why we need Christians in a wide variety of vocational spheres—and the effect their work can have for the kingdom.

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  • More links to interesting articles
  • The Top 10 Faith and Work Quotes of the Week
  • My Review of Master What Matters: 12 Value Choices to Help You Win at Life by John Maxwell
  • Quotes from the book You’re Only Human: How Your Limits Reflect God’s Design and Why That’s Good News by Kelly Kapic

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